Thursday, October 25, 2012

More Thoughts on Whirled Squash Day

Grumbling from a few squashists about perceived inattention on the part of US Squash towards World Squash Day, including my own humble thoughts on this blog, has led US Squash to provide a list of the things they have done. That story is located here. Seeing the list, I think they have done a pretty good job after all. I have my quibbles, but I won't bore you with them. I think the lesson here is perception versus reality. The reality is the organization had done quite a few things, and for me to say they hadn't was incorrect. But the perception of that inattention was not mine alone, so I think some thought should go into why that perception was out there. One thing I noticed was this: Much of the activity on World Squash Day emanated from the usopensquash.com site, whose name implies coverage of a sole tournament. Not being able to go to that tournament, I didn't spend too much time on the site. US Squash has, however, put a fair amount of content on this site that is not specifically related to the tournament, and some of that content involved World Squash Day. There was much less going on at the US Squash website -- hence, my perception was of minimalistic effort. All that being said, I want to reiterate that I am a strong supporter of US Squash andalways have been. I've said as much in several of my blogs. They have done a terrific job advancing the sport in the US with limited funds and with limited personnel. They have many constituents that they must try to help, and sometimes those constituents can't help but feel a bit abandoned. In addition, with the Olympics bid once again heating up, US Squash has done considerable work aiding the worldwide squash community's efforts to get into the quadrennial games. Much of that work has been behind the scenes and under the radar of the average fan.

So, the reality is, good work US Squash. And my perception has improved.